On Photography by Susan Sontag is one of the most (if not the most...at least thus far) powerful books that I have ever read that combines historical, cultural, aesthetic and photography criticism into one. It amazed me. I had goosebumps while reading it. This is my first time reading the book (several photographers on Twitter mentioned that they have read it 2 or 3 times [or have more than 1 copy], while others had no clue who Sontag was [a frickin' tragedy if you ask me]), and I know that I want to read it again next year. It is truly powerful.Sontag uses intelligence, eloquence and at times a rather sharpness of language to dissect how photography is categorized and labeled, juxtaposed it to other art forms and even critiqued those we consider "perfect" masters (such as Ansel Adams, Edward Weston and Diane Arbus), something that most photographers seem deathly afraid or simply unwillingly to do. By critique, I do not mean in the overly technically pedantic or superficially shallow way that photographers today may focus on sharpness (for example) or conversely say/comment "great capture." I mean she critiqued the very way they approached and labeled their own work and photography itself. By critique, I mean scholarly review, not pick on or insult. Again, this book seems to be written from an elevated place of critical consciousness but without pretension and annoyance, at least in my opinion.
I found her juxtaposition of painting and photography truly fascinating. "Photographs are as much an interpretation of the world as paintings and drawings are." I won't comment further because I would rather you the reader explore this part yourself. Also, one of her examples when she mentioned photojournalism in comparing public response to Korean vs. Vietnam wars was of interest to me. She alludes to the fact that political relevance and perception, more so than actual artistic composition and style heavily affects how politicized images are processed and internalized. She writes: "What determines the possibility of being affected morally by photographs is the existence of a relevant political consciousness."
She also writes about how to photograph someone is to be complicit in whatever is occurring, even if it is momentarily, and even if it is pain. Wow. This line of thought is something that some photographers (with a conscience) actually battle. There is a joke that if you saw someone drowning and you could save them or photograph them, which lens would you use? While that makes for good laughs, when you think about it truly, are we as photographers inclined to help above record? Sontag challenges this. She writes: "The person who intervenes cannot record; the person who is recording cannot intervene." Common "debates" in photography such as should it be a medium for recording truths and "reality" versus one to express personal views, art and even abstractions, and where these debates merge and diverge is discussed in detail, as well.
The hair on my neck stood when I got to this part of the book that I mention below. Sontag went to a place I consistently go to through writing, conversations, Twitter...wherever. This is a place many photographers do not want to go....
"A capitalist society requires a culture based on images. It needs to furnish vast amounts of entertainment in order to stimulate buying and anesthetize the injuries or class, race and sex. And it needs to gather unlimited amounts of information, the better to exploit natural resources, increase productivity, keep order, make war, give jobs to bureaucrats. The camera's twin capacities, to subjectivize reality and to objectify it, ideally serve these needs and strengthen them. Cameras define reality in the two ways essential to the workings of an advanced industrial society: as a spectacle (for masses) and as an object of surveillance (for rulers). The production of images also furnished a ruling ideology. Social change is replaced by a change in images. The freedom to consume a plurality of images and goods is equated with freedom itself. The narrowing of free political choice to free economic consumption requires the unlimited production and consumption of images."
While it is more comforting to pretend that images and photography (or other forms of visual media) are not used to anesthetize, manipulate, control...they are. Consistently. When the common rhetoric for a Black actor to win an award is yes a powerful performance, but also yes, one the reintegrates the notions of harmful, recurrent stereotypical archetypes, this is media with multiple purposes. While a photographer can use cheap or expensive tools to consistently portray images of beauty as thin, Eurocentric and young above all, this does not mean the actual photographs are poor. It simply means photographs ARE MORE than just things to look at. When commercials of women rely on portraying them as stupid or hypersexual and if Black women as the Mammy, Jezebel or Sapphire and nothing else, this is again, visual media being used to reinforce social norms and control for the negative. Does this mean the commercial is not well-lit, and the actors are not attractive? No. Again, it simply means the media...visuals are simply more than "just" something we see.
These are the types of things that I discuss. Yes, I love photography. I love what I can do with it and how it makes me feel when I am creating or writing about it. But I am not on a planet alone with a camera. How we use our cameras, our own personal biases, prejudices and perceptions, how we fit into society at large and how media can be used is relevant, and not to be overlooked. How we see people and how messages of culture are portrayed IS photography...not something to cower away from for fear of brand damage. Worrying over brand damage has genuinely become a way of anesthetizing that which is most important to discuss.--what is IN those photographs and not just the photographs themselves. It is so hard to choose a "favorite" book of the year, as I have read so many inside and outside of photography, but I think this might just be the one. Truly amazing.
Related Blog Posts: Reflections In Black: A History of Black Photographers 1840 To The Present, A Very Different Photograph Critique, 2011 Photography Reading
1 Comments:
For me, photography provides the best means for me to learn even more about myself. The relationship between the photographer and the subject, with the camera as the bridge, speaks volumes when viewed with a critical eye.
After learning and re-learning the "exposure triangle", I fostered a better photographic experience by shooting what I care about, without worrying about damaging my reputation. I'll have to check out Sontag's book.
Give thanks...
~ SP
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